Stills

Straight roads going to the infinite seem to be an endless subject. Maybe it conveys a feeling of freedom to go further, I don't know. I know I feel like taking such a picture at least once a week but refrain on the thought of how many have already been done and published. It is wrong, though, as this one shows.

In this case the mist, the poles, the wires, even the flatness, all concur to pull us over there, along that road.

Maybe I just like to travel too much.
 

Doug, I think this can be lonely and still express some of the interest Stephane sees. After our first winter here, I decided that my sanity required at least attempting to make photographic sense of how desolate this place can be. Even in the relatively urban surroundings that I inhabit every day, when the wind starts whipping along at 40 MPH and the temperature drops below 0 F, no amount of semi-urban density can make things feel any less desolate. Getting out into the even more desolate edges helps to recalibrate; it could always be worse ;-)

Stephane, I know what you mean about doing what's already been done. I try not to sensor myself that way, but I too sometimes let it get the better of me. If neither you or I have done it yet, we can still take some joy in doing it.
 

Matt, don't get me wrong, I do like this image very much, but I was only trying to relate to what my emotional response was. Looking at it again, with the hints of snow on the side, it gives me the same feeling.

I also had to agree with Stephane about wanting to take similar pictures, as I have doing that all week during our drive from Jiashen to Pinghu each morning! So it was a surprise to see your similar image on Stills that I had been working on here in China. hmmmmm.
 

One has a sense that this has been done before but I think that you have found a niche in the genre! For a start this doesn't try to romanticize the whole road business and the horizon is, physically, quite close. The latter point is quite interesting because the trees on the right create the distance in the centre. Also, not too many of the genre (if any) have the road at your starting point at the bottom of the frame and going dead straight into the picture.

In fact, it is quite easy to say desolate but the lure of the road is still there and who knows what might lie through all that grain (film)?! I would certainly want to be moving on though - it's too far from the sea and there are no hills! I might try a Welsh country road on you sometime.
 

The grain and B&W contribute to the feeling of 'emptiness'. Thumbing a lift here looks like it might be a long process!

Everything leads to that desolate horizon, drawing me in and onward.
 

The grain and B&W contribute to the feeling of 'emptiness'. Thumbing a lift here looks like it might be a long process!

Everything leads to that desolate horizon, drawing me in and onward.
 

"If neither you or I have done it yet, we can still take some joy in doing it."

I greatly appreciate that sentiment, Matt. I also agree that you have "done it" very well with your own style.

This "emptiness" has a sort of zen beauty for me.
 

For a picture with no definite subject it does hold your attention rather well. The sloping of the telegraph poles are very appealing and gives the shot a general unbalanced feel. The icing sugar edged road leads to nothing save (hopefully) to those patch of trees off on the far right. I'm encouraged to walk further down this road but I'm not really sure why.
 

Everyone, thanks for the comments. I've been wanting to get out of town to do some photography on the plains, and the fruits of this short trip have encouraged me to do more. If only the weather would stay this 'atmospheric' ;-)

When I posted this picture on my website, it didn't garner nearly as much attention as this this picture of a barn, which I still don't understand. I prefer the road.